Literati is excited to welcome author Mark Beyer who will be reading and discussing his new novel, Hired Man.
About Hired Man:
What would you do if a dying stranger begged you to save his daughter and then paid you seven figures to do it? When suburban dad Terry Holbrook stops to help the quickly dying driver of an icy car wreck on a dark, lonely country road, he can’t believe the bloody check thrust into his hands is worth the paper it’s printed on. Yet, in no time, Terry and his family are swept into a dangerous vortex of powerful Detroit drug dealers, vicious blackmailers, homicidal white supremacists and the dead man’s vengeful family. Enter Pearce Butler, a “ghost” who operates both inside and outside the law. But is his true motive to mete out justice? Or simply to get to the money first? From word one, Hired Man speeds like a bullet train through ever-tightening coils of suspense toward a climax as riveting as any in crime fiction.
Mark Beyer is a Detroit-based writer, creative director, and video producer. He and his wife, Linda, live in Beverly Hills, MI. His fiction has been published in the L.A. Reader. Hired Man is his first nove
Benefitting The Humane Society of Huron Valley Bountiful Bowls Program
Join us for a talk and signing with Stephanie Feldstein, the Population and Sustainability Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, for her book, The Animal Lover’s Guide to Changing the World: Practical Advice and Everyday Actions for a More Sustainable, Humane, and Compassionate Planet. It’s an inspiring, accessible, and empowering book for everyone who loves animals and wants to live a more animal-friendly life, even if they aren’t ready to join a movement or give up bacon. 20% of the sales of the book will go to the Humane Society of Huron Valley’s Bountiful Bowls Program, benefitting Washtenaw County and Plymouth residents who are having difficulty meeting the nutritional needs of their dog or cat due to financial burden.
About the Author
Stephanie Feldstein is the Population and Sustainability Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, where she heads a national program that addresses the connection between human population growth, overconsumption, and the wildlife extinction crisis. She created the innovative Take Extinction Off Your Plate campaign, and her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, NPR, Salon, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and more.
All invited to listen to guild members swap stories or bring their own to tell.
2-4 p.m., AADL Downtown 3rd-floor freespace rm., 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. annarborstorytelling.org, 997-5388
These 2 Michigan picture book writers read from their new books. Crum’s Mousling’s Words is about a young mouse’s first trip out of the nest. Greene’s Let’s Go ABC! Things That Go, from A to Z celebrates machines that move, from airplanes to zeppelins. Refreshments, prizes, signings.
2 p.m., Nicola’s, Westgate shopping center. Free. 662-0600.
This local husband-and-wife writing team reads from ‘Til Death: Marriage Poems, their jointly written collection exploring the ups and downs of suburban monogamy from their dual perspectives. The program begins with open mike readings.
7-8:30 p.m., Sweetwaters, 123 W. Washington. Free. 994-6663.
Local writer Sarah Zettel reads from her new historical fiction novella set in 1839 China at the outset of the 1st Anglo-Chinese Opium War. Tea & snacks.
7-8:30 p.m., AADL Downtown multipurpose rm., 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-4200.
Literati Bookstore is excited to welcome author Fatima Farheen Mirza, who will read and discuss her debut novel, A Place for Us.
About A Place for Us:
Fatima Farheen Mirza’s masterful debut novel gathers together the lives of an Indian Muslim family in California on the eve of its eldest daughter’s wedding. As Hadia’s marriage—one chosen of love, not tradition—brings the family back together, her parents, Rafiq and Layla, must come to terms with the choices that their two daughters, and their estranged son, Amar, have made.
In a narrative that spans decades and sees family life through the eyes of each member, A Place for Us charts the crucial moments in the family’s past, from the bonds that hold them together to the differences that pull them apart.
And as Hadia, Huda, and Amar attempt to carve out lives for themselves, they must reconcile their present culture with their parents’ faith, tread a path between the old world and the new, and learn how the smallest decisions can lead to the deepest of betrayals.
This is a deeply moving and resonant story for our times: a masterful novel of love, identity, and belonging—one that eloquently examines what it means to be both American and Muslim—and announces Fatima Farheen Mirza as a major new literary talent.
Fatima Farheen Mirza was born and raised in the Bay Area, and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a teaching-writing fellow. She currently lives in Brooklyn.
Readings by these 2 novelists. Title 13 is local writer Ferro’s satirical debut novel about an alcoholic bureaucrat who struggles with mounting paranoia, his relationships with concerned family members, his dying grandmother, and a budding office romance. Portland writer DeFreitas’s Hot Season is about 3 college roommates whose lives change when the FBI comes to campus in pursuit of an alum wanted for politically motivated crimes. Signing.
7 p.m., Bookbound, Courtyard Shops. Free. 369-4345.
Widely-published Detroit poet Lauren Bernstein-Machlay reads from her latest book, Travelers, a collection of autobiographical poems. Foreword (Traverse City) writer Susan Waggoner notes “it’s through the bravery of the concept-going back to the place where you grew up to plant your flag in uncertain turf-that the book most delivers. Poised between sinking back into nature and leaping forward to revival, flashing glimpses of Detroit stand out.” Followed by a poetry and short fiction open mike.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757.
